JNugent
Back from France 609JNugent With very simple refining, a given crude oil will produce a certain blend of products. However, I think...
As far as refining is concerned, if you could turn a barrel of oil entirely into a product of your choice, then you would get somewhat less diesel than petrol on a volumetric basis, as it denser. This is almost certainly not technically possible - each type of oil will naturally refine to a specific balance of fuels. Cracking and reforming to alter the balance significantly has a cost, although I expect it is not punitive. Supply and demand should adjust the refinery price (as indeed it does on a seasonal basis for heating oils, similar to diesel), but of course everything is swamped by government taxes and duties, so that mechanism signally fails. UK refineries have coped with the much-increased private use of diesel over the last few years, so I think it rather unlikely that prior to this they were giving it away or pouring it down the drain. It does not need a specific tax regime to encourage its use.
I accept your argument about the haulage industry, but the way in which they are favoured also benefits private diesel motorists who get a dirtier, more polluting, higher carbon fuel for less than petrol. This rankles a bit with me, especially the energy related bit. For private motorists, I believe taxes should be related either to resource use or energy available or emissions output, and on all these bases diesel should cost more. To put it another way, if a mad scientist tomorrow came up with a way to compress petrol to half its normal volume but otherwise changed nothing else, and thus doubled my mpg, would you be happy for me to pay 91.9p for a litre of it, or would you think its price should be doubled ?
Fine with me. The "win" should be increased efficiency (in terms of energy out over energy in, not miles per gallon), and if that is not cost-effective taking into account the extra cost of engine manufacture, then so be it.
I'd like to see this taxed on an energy basis, too, with an allowance made for any "clean" advantage it may have.
-- "Bigamy : one wife too many. Monogamy : same thing"
